Here are our responses to commonly asked questions – feel free to reach out to us at tabularasareview@gmail.com for an answer, if you don’t see your question answered below.
Do you accept artwork, or writing accompanying artwork?
Short answer: no.
Long answer: we have a very specific artistic style for Tabula Rasa Review, and we do not put any artwork in our magazine other than that which we design ourselves. Accordingly, if your writing cannot stand alone from a piece of artwork, it won’t be considered for acceptance.
Do you pay authors for their writing?
No. As a small, independent literary press, we aren’t able to break even with our current expenses. If we were to pay authors in addition to our current maintenance costs, we would find ourselves in debt! Knowing this, we make our submissions completely free. Workshops, donations, and issue sales are the only ways we make any money from what we do, and it helps us pay for our website, design software, and advertising.
Do you provide feedback for writing?
It depends. If you purchase a workshop slot during a submission period, you will receive a fully workshopped piece of writing. If you submit your piece as normal and it makes it to the final rounds of our editorial process, we will sent out a special rejection email with anonymous comments from our team, so you can get some free feedback and insight. Otherwise, we do not provide feedback.
Do you send a copy of the issue to authors after publication?
No. We wish we could, and we tried valiantly to do so for Issue 1, but as we accept international submissions, we cannot afford fees for both domestic and international shipping, and we didn’t want to exclude anyone. If we ever have the funds to do so, we will!
Do you send notifications when our submission gets received?
Yes. Sometimes it takes a while, though! As the job of Managing Editor is often shared between both co-founders, who have full-time jobs, it often takes us a few weeks to get caught back up with our submission inbox. Once your piece has been processed into the first step of our editorial process, you will receive an email thanking you for your submission and explaining the next steps.
When will I hear back about whether or not my piece was accepted?
It depends. You will always receive a verdict on your piece, whether it’s a yes or a no, but we have a very intensive, thoughtful editorial process that takes several months to complete. We endeavor to have all decisions out by mid-March after each submission period closes.
Tabula Rasa Review 